http://www.buzzflash.com/editorial/04/10/edi04079.html
“But nothing will be as disgraceful an assault on democracy as the hiring of 2,500 “rent a Republican thugs” – at $100 a day – to intentionally intimidate minority and other Democratic voters from exercising their democratic and constitutional right by creating chaos and a menacing environment through challenging voters in Democratic (primarily minority) districts in Ohio. Such an onslaught of challenges on election day has the intent of tying up polling booths through lengthy challenges (a process that was successful in dooming the ill-fated voter recount in Florida in 2000 even before the Supreme Court stepped in), thus forcing voters to abandon unfathomable waits as each voter is challenged, requiring a lengthy review process of each individual’s right to vote. Secondly, the very presence of hostile GOP thugs – and the boastful public promotion of this strategy by the Republican Party of Ohio (at the behest of Karl Rove, you can be sure) – is meant to keep fearful minority views from coming to the voting booths in Ohio at all. This is Jim Crow redux.”
And if you want more Google on **Ohio voter suppression tactics
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And what evidence do you have that these people are hired as “thugs” to intentionally intimidate? If their purpose is to ensure that voters are legit, this seems like a legal and laudable purpose. Where do you (or where does the author you quote) get the evidence from which to draw the inference that these are “thugs” and hired to “intentionally” intimidate voters.
And why are minorities so skittish? There was a police officer at my polling place this morning, and, being Hispanic, I immediately began shaking with fear and left before casting my vote.
Oh, wait. No I didn’t, because I have nothing to fear from police. I stood in line and cast my ballot.
Why don’t you just call up the Ohio GOP and volunteer to be a poll watcher in Shaker Heights… when they’re done laughing, you can ask them why they’re only worried about fraud in black neighborhoods.
You might have felt differently if you were a first-time voter, or were someone with less education and self-confidence. And how would you have reacted if, because of voter challenges, you faced a 6-hour wait to cast your ballot?
Might it have something to do with the fact that these champions of liberty are concentrating their efforts in heavily Democratic precincts?
The GOP has a well-known history of trying to surpress minority voting. Why are we to believe that they have suddenly gotten religion, and have become an organization dedicated to ensuring the purity of the voting process, outcome be damned?
OK - please provide a cite that GOP challengers are going only to black neighborhoods.
Then review the phony addresses provided by the voter registrations collected by Democrats and returned as undeliverable by the post office. These phony addresses seem to concentrate… where, exactly?
If I were in charge of allocating challengers, I would be placing them wherever there were phony voter registrations in large numbers. If that includes Shaker Heights, I would expect them to be there.
By the way – not only did the 6th Circuit overturn the decision banning challengers, but the US Supreme Court declined to stay the 6th circuit. That decision is made by one Supreme Court justice; each justice is responsible for stays in a given circuit. The responsible justice here? Evil Rehnquist? Evil Scalia? Evil Thomas?
Nope. John Paul Stevens, one of the Court’s most liberal members.
All that shows is that Stevens puts his nonpartisan duties above his personal interests; perhaps you find that concept alien, Bricker?
It’s also worth noting that the two judges in the 6th Circuit who voted to overturn the ban were Republican appointees – one from Ronnie Reagan, and one from G. W. Bush. himself. I’ll be surprised if a Republican steps forward to denounce these “activist judges,” however.
By the way – the two federal judges who ruled that challengers were prohibited? Also not “activist.” Although they did overrule the law, they did so by invoking a clear and well-understood Constitutional principle. They didn’t legislate rights out of thin air. So far, I’d say there has not been any activism from the bench on either side.
It isn’t just a matter of state law. The Republican party is under an injunction not to target African Americans for voter suppression, which is just what they’ve been doing.
When you look at the broad picture: white suburbanites paid to come into the inner city to keep an eye on all those scary, fraud-prone Africans, it doesn’t look so pretty. Given that the republicans never expected to find many illegitimate voters, and their only real intention was to hurt turnout, I’d say that it looks considerably worse than not pretty.
Can’t say for sure. Possibly because one of the recruiters was paid in crack cocaine or the fact that some districts had more registered voters than adults qualified to vote.
I didn’t know what a “challenger” was so I asked the precinct workers what it involved. Basically, by law anyone can challenge a voter’s credentials. The usual response is an ID check. Had I known it ahead of time I would have tagged the guy in front of me. His signature was just short of an X. I would have liked to see him produce an ID. My BS radar went off on this guy and his signature didn’t do anything to quell it.
I didn’t realize they had records of my signature to compare when I signed in so I felt a little more secure. My voting precinct has always been run by people that appear to have enough common sense to come in out of the rain so I’m confident things went well there.
I have always been in favor of mandatory identification using a thumb print. If 2 prints come out the same then the voters get contacted to verify their votes.